Thirsty Ear Recordings is an American

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

. It was founded in the late 1970s as a marketing company for the then-unnamed

alternative music Alternative music may refer to the following types of music: *Alternative rock *Alternative pop *Alternative R&B *Neo soul, sometimes known as alternative soul *Alternative reggaeton *Alternative hip hop *Alternative dance *Alternative metal *Chris ...

field, and expanded to issue its own records in 1990. Thirsty Ear came to prominence in the mid-1990s with a series of CD reissues of early industrial albums by artists such as Foetus, Einstürzende Neubauten, Marc Almond, Swans, and Test Dept. The label also released new albums by alternative rock bands such as Baby Ray, Madder Rose, and The Church. Foetus would remain on the label, recording original music on Thirsty Ear through 2001. More recently, Thirsty Ear has released jazz albums as part of its ''Blue Series''. Enlisting Matthew Shipp as the artistic director. The ''Blue Series'' has released albums by artists such as Shipp, William Parker, Charlie Hunter and Tim Berne, while also inviting

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

artists DJ Spooky, Meat Beat Manifesto, and

Spring Heel Jack Spring Heel Jack is an English electronic music duo, consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales. Formed in 1993 in London, England, Spring Heel Jack began their career exploring drum and bass and jungle, but have since branched out into free ...

, hip-hoppers El-P and

Antipop Consortium Antipop Consortium is an American alternative hip hop group. The group formed in 1997, when Beans, High Priest, M. Sayyid, and producer Earl Blaize met at a poetry slam in New York City. They are notable for their stream-of-consciousness lyric ...

, and even

Slayer Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style ...

drummer Dave Lombardo.

Roster

* Baby Ray * Beans * Tim Berne *

Big Satan Big Satan is a musical project headed by composer and alto saxophonist Tim Berne, featuring drummer Tom Rainey and electric guitarist Marc Ducret. Rainey and Ducret are regular Berne collaborators, and both contribute compositions as well. His ...

* blink. *

Guillermo E. Brown Guillermo E. Brown (aka Pegasus Warning) is a multi-disciplinary performer whose works include ''Soul at the Hands of the Machine'', ''The Beat Kids' Open Rhythm System and Sound Magazine'', ''Black Dreams 1.0,'' ''...Is Arturo Klauft'', ''Hande ...

* Roy Campbell * DJ Spooky *

DJ Wally A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...

* Mark Eitzel * El-P * Peter Evans * Free Form Funky Freqs *

The Free Zen Society ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

The Gang Font ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

Mary Halvorson Mary Halvorson (born October 16, 1980) is an American avant-garde jazz composer and guitarist from Brookline, Massachusetts. Among her many collaborations, she has: led a trio with and Ches Smith, and a quintet with the addition of Jon Irabago ...

and

Jessica Pavone Jessica Pavone is a New York-based violinist, violist and experimental composer. Her jazz-and-classical-inspired avant-garde music combines elements of improvisation and composition. Background Pavone is a graduate of the Hartt School of Musi ...

* Charlie Hunter and Bobby Previte as Groundtruther * Albert King * KTU * Mike Ladd * Dave Lombardo *

Mat Maneri Mat Maneri (born October 4, 1969) is an American composer, violin, and viola player. He is the son of the saxophonist Joe Maneri and Sonja Maneri. Career Maneri has recorded with Cecil Taylor, Guerino Mazzola, Matthew Shipp, Joe Morris, G ...

* Meat Beat Manifesto * Nils Petter Molvaer *

Ben Neill Ben Neill (b. November 14, 1957) is an American composer, trumpeter, producer, and educator. He is the inventor of the "Mutantrumpet", a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. Early life, family and education Neill was born in Winston-Salem, North ...

* William Parker * Daniel Bernard Roumain * Carl Hancock Rux * Scanner with The Post Modern Jazz Quartet * Sexmob * Matthew Shipp * Sigmatropic *

* Craig Taborn * Visionfest * David S. Ware * Pete M. Wyer * Vernon Reid and DJ Logic are the Yohimbe Brothers * Weasel Walter * Eri Yamamoto

External links

Official site

Thirsty Ear Discography
at

discogs.com Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the l ...

{{Authority control American independent record labels Industrial record labels Alternative rock record labels Jazz record labels

Roster

See also

External links